Banff - Mount Norquay, Sunshine Village and Lake Louise - Alberta, Canada

Banff is a skiing and wilderness mecca an hour and a half by car from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. A four-wheel drive car is recommended for transportation to the surrounding ski areas of Mount Norquay, Lake Louise and Sunshine Village.

Together, these areas have over 3300 hectares of skiing and snowfall averages nearly 10 meters per season. There is plenty of accommodation in all price ranges and the town has a nice cowboy feel with lots of wildlife, even in the middle of town. The 70 grizzly bears in the area fortunately sleep in the winter, although some large males can stay awake until the New Year.

Just five minutes from Banff, Mount Norquay is a comparatively small mountain but well worth a day's skiing. The area has only five lifts but the drop is in the class of the largest Swedish ski resorts. Most of the skiing is not for beginners but is in the red-black range. There are also extremely steep runs for those looking for a challenge. The large lodge at the base provides food and other services, and if you get tired of skiing, you can try high-class tubing.

Six miles from Banff, in the middle of beautiful Banff National Park, is Lake Louise. The ski area is the largest in Canada's portion of the Rocky Mountains. A gondola and a couple of fast chairlifts take you high into the mountains. The front side is gentler than the back side where there is unlimited controlled untracked bowling. Lunch is taken at the cozy Temple Lodge at the Larch area or at the huge timbered lodge at the base. The views in the surroundings are incredible.

Our favorite is Sunshine Village, a 20-minute drive from Banff. From the parking lot there is a fast, five kilometer long gondola up to the ski area which is located high up on a plateau in a valley. Most of the lifts then leave from this plateau where there are also some services and food. Most of the skiing is above the tree line and there is virtually unlimited lift borne off piste, even more so if you like to shark. Most of the skiing is on the blue-red scale but really steep skiing can be found on Goats Eye Mountain. For those who want a real challenge, there is the Delirium Dive which requires some preparation and full avalanche gear to ride. The atmosphere in Sunshine Village is Canadian and you can tell that people are there to ski and not to show off their equipment. Don't be surprised if you see sheep with long horns or deer on the slopes. Like many other Canadian ski resorts, there's a large daylodge with a food court serving burgers, pizza, pasta and Asian food in a school cafeteria-style dining room. But the best burgers are at Burger Schack on the ground floor. It is common to bring your own food and there is access to a microwave and hot water for those who prefer to cook themselves. For table service, there's also the Lookout Kitchen + Bar or the Mad Trappers Saloon housed in the original 1930s lodge.

For those who want to lay the first lines when it's down, you can stay at high altitude at the Sunshine Mountain Lodge in the middle of the ski area. Check-in is at the gondola base station and your bags are transported up to the lodge while you ski. There are standard double rooms or more spectacular suites and loft rooms for four people with eight-meter-high panoramic windows. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served in one of the two restaurants or in the bar and there is a café on the ground floor. When the lifts have stopped running for the day and the moon shines over the mountains, the sense of tranquillity is unbeatable.

Banff and the surrounding ski areas are for those who are looking for varied skiing and who want a greater nature and adventure experience than most other places in the world.

The article was originally written and published on freeride.se in 2011 but has been updated after new visits to the area in December and January 2013 and February and March 2016.